Struggling To Pick Colors? Learn This!

[@fabmediastudios3512]

The film industry works with a 60/30/10 rule, which (from left to right) 60% of the image has colour dominance, with 30% being an a supportive colour to the 60% coverage, and the 10% is the accent drawing the eye in.

[@DroolRockworm]

And as a result, every film in the film industry looks the same. Good job!

[@frankwater6579]

@@DroolRockwormsince you are the expert what do you suggest they do instead?

[@xxLunaMoonx]

can you pls tell me What is Coverage?

[@TheLobstersoup]

@@xxLunaMoonx Coverage in terms of amount of the picture taken up by these colors. Imagine 60% of it was grey/brown, 30% blues and other less saturated colors and and only 10% highly saturated or vibrant colors (high saturation value, or white/bright tones).

[@josray2557]

I think this is very helpful. I want to explore this method.

[@thanhnguyentri7836]

My favorite way of coloring is just starting with one color that sets the mood of the painting. Then I go for monotone color scheme since there's no way to go wrong with this unless it's value issue. Then I add a complementary color right at the focal point. For coloring lights and shadows I use a lot of color balance while thinking about color temperature instead of which exact color is the best to pick. Ever since I apply this kind of workflow my art has been looking a lot less like children coloring book.

[@EldritchUniverse]

That's some interesting advice. I too feel like my art looks like a kid colored it with wooden colored pencils. Let's say you want to paint a vampire in a moody setting and your primary color is a dark, desaturated blue. Would your skin color for the vampire then also be a desaturated light blue? Maybe a bad example since vampires are often portrayed with fairer, desaturated blueish skin... but let's say it's not a vampire but a human vampire hunter.

[@kram1art]

@@EldritchUniverse I think a blue-ish skinned vampire would work well in a similarly colored environment. It could play nicely if the story of the illustration is, for example, "the fear of a threat unseen". The similarly toned skin can almost camouflage into the forest, and the contrasting colors could lead the viewer's eyes to the face of the vampire. In fact, that comic page that's on the tablet in the background of Tim's video here is a great example of how a majority desaturated blue with some leading reds could be really effective for a piece like yours.

[@RAMAMOORTHI.A]

do you suggest any tutorials online

[@anr5525]

brilliant ill try it on my work

[@Jay34k]

WHY DOES NO ONE EVER TALK ABOUT THIS!? It's such fundamental knowledge, but it doesn't get talked about enough. Excellent lesson, it really helped me cement similar concepts I've only seen properly explained in Japanese books.

[@BoxFunk]

Ow Tim, you have done more for me than art school, and im nearly out, been drawing for 4 years and since i found you i have actually started improving, if i could i would just hug ya

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know these are helping you out! It means a lot to hear that!

[@KoongYe]

This video is absolutely amazing. I usually get bored from watching art tutorials, but the way you showed examples of different cases really helped me understand. Thank you!

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Awesome! That's great to hear, thanks for letting me know!

[@caiusactinunwise1412]

Absolutely obligatory lessons here for anyone, who does visual art. Personally, I've just started my art journey (and not to mention with pixel art) like 2 months ago, but I can already say all these guidelines and nuances apply, whether it's traditional, digital or even pixel art. Videos such as these are a blessing, and this one is also just well done and conveys the message in a simple, effective way. Thanks, man!

[@WilkenTisdale]

Thanks Tim! This helped me a lot! New Subscriber!🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@jurgenanimation]

Thank you Tim! This made me re-evaluate a drawing I made of a moonlight night scene with a ghostly dog. The balance and muddiness of the greys really comes into play when it comes to nightscenes. I'm going to put this into practice! Also, I would like to point out your compositions are really well thought through! Besides the colour theory you explained, I also take a lot away about the attention to composition and anatomy of your characters. I have some work cut out for me. Thank you for sharing so clearly how you approach your process!

[@stoffelundsoweiter2560]

hey i just wanted to say thanks for all the informative sessions. Your calm manner and the length of the episodes really help me to immerse myself in the subject matter and work on something of my own in parallel. Thank you very much!

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Thanks for taking the time to let me know these are helping out! Especially that the longer videos are useful. (most of the time people are telling me to make things shorter here :). I think immersion is key when it comes to learning art.

[@art_of_yueh]

Thanks, this is a great springboard to work from !

[@tripIe7]

incredible video. ur explanation of balance organized a bunch of loose thoughts in my mind. very important principle that applies to a lot of art in general

[@raruteam]

Great video, I knew some of the theory but the pyramid exercise is a great way to do more color studies, it's like quick gesture drawing studies but for color.

[@mariadolotova7969]

Thank you! I'm much less terrified now at the thought of coloring my illustrations!

[@subliteral]

I find it helpful to start simply and move into complexity. Like , a brutishly simple composition in the first stages helps me to maintain order and control as a piece progresses. Despite myself my best compositions almost always have started with very basic and clear divisions of tone.

[@potatomanworld]

Hey man, just went through your mini course, it was really informative, thank you. When I have the money I want to do the full paid course. Great stuff.

[@TheDrawingCodex]

That's awesome to hear! Thanks for taking the time to let me know!

[@dailydoodle42]

I always thought of colors and value distribution as a bell curve, normal ditribution etc. Never thought it as a pyramid! Interesting stuff

[@YdolemArt]

Thank you for sharing all your knowledge with us, your workflow really inspire me, I realized which style I wanted to lean to ! I was so lost before, the more "academic" way isn't for me haha

[@arifdale]

Thank you for putting the time for another very valuable video!

[@arknark]

This was super informative and exactly what I needed. I've been working on this digital painting for a while and have no idea how to do backgrounds, but I'm gonna apply what I learned here and now it's gonna rule. Thanks dude :)

[@TheDrawingCodex]

No worries. I'm glad you found this one helpful!

[@carter_roodman]

great video

[@TreeShepherdAndDrow]

This is soooo cool..! And helpful! Thank you for this!

[@exciteart]

I think you should mention the dark grey of the lineart that you are using. It's really help viewers understanding value better because of the help of those linearts. Put away the linearts, and let us see how colours and values standing on their own

[@lilgal9346]

your channel is so awesome

[@TheLobstersoup]

How can I get a better line quality on a small tablet. I use a Wacom One, with stabilization cranked up to 40/100. But I still find myself having to redraw or "fix" lines, even though I am doing my best to draw full lines from the shoulder. I feel this is very difficult on a smaller tablet, but I would like to hear more ideas on how to improve the lineart. Perhaps also through adjusting falloff and opacity settings and using better suited brushes.

[@sarkany888]

advanced stuff, neat!

[@marcos.a8814]

My question is, when you have a character with a pre-established color scheme, how do you make them fit into a painting that focuses on another color? does the colors of the character throw off the balance you've created in the background??

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Yeah I talk about that in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6ichnl5hcloiMk A good strategy is to start with what you know needs to be in the scene and then build the rest around it. Often good overall design includes considering the characters alongside the world and scenes they inhabit and making sure there is a good colour combination. Animation and film often takes everything into consideration as part of pre production. I hope this helps.

[@nayoparra3672]

is that obi-one kenobi?

[@aryatenea]

I love you, I love you, I love you!

[@rerelala.]

The fastest subscribe I’ve ever did ❤️‍🔥

[@littlesillyadventures]

May I know what's the book (the one showing the grids and compositions) at the start that was shown along with creative illustrations (Andrew Loomis)? or is it the same book!? Thank you!

[@TheDrawingCodex]

The books I showed were Edgar Payne: composition on outdoor painting. And creative illustration. I think the one with the grids you are thinking of is creative illustration.

[@Kerlasia]

I wanted to check out the free mini workshop, but none of the videos on the site are loading for me. Anyone else? Edit: It was a problem with firefox

[@guillermozalles9303]

Thanks👍

[@lenOwOo]

THANKS

[@Lena-xj5uh]

Thank you so much. Great video.

[@TristanMacKenzie]

What is that book on composition called?? The first book you showed looks just like something I need right now!

[@violetolson]

I think the first one is Creative Illustration by Loomis as shown when he switches books. Not sure about the second, but also curious

[@violetolson]

Oh, he also just mentioned Edgar Payne's Composition of Outdoor Painting, so it's probably that

[@TristanMacKenzie]

@@violetolson aha thank you 😊

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Yeah Edgar Payne's Composition of Outdoor Painting is the answer. It can be hard to find, and not that cheap though.

[@AMightyStorm]

tell me why I just finished art school and not a single professor mentioned this at all

[@cartooning.]

Best🤓🤓🤓🤓

[@213wishes]

Mostly, some and a bit.

[@theGreaterAwareness]

I wish I could use color like this but at the moment I seem to be going another trajectory. I was born with a condition where every 20 seconds I see immortality at the same time as mortality and combined with a medical condition that I have that puts me in a near death state and so my body struggles to process oxygen, sugar and insulin. As a result, I am often constantly in a near death state and every 20 seconds I see all things. Thereby, my art flows fractally without even realizing it. I just go with the flow. I also always paint with Legal Cannabis. Some paintings have taken me close to 200 hours but they flow as I just become the still water and whatever reflects in my pool of reflection is what I paint. I think of it like this, just as a boxer uses speed bags to strengthen their shoulders, I flow in a relaxed state so as to master the art of relaxing my mind. By relaxing my mind, I become the mirror and when I become the mirror, the mirror is the void that contains the awareness but it has no distance due to the nature of void. Thereby the distance to all things is the distance of 0 and thereby all things are equal in distance and thereby the distance between the question and the answer also becomes zero as they are two ends of the same rod, one is the inverse of the other if you view it as a mirror. I realized that the Fibonacci sequence is in all things, and thereby all my artistic beauty seems to come from the maths in my wrist, fingers and shoulder. Learning how to manipulate your joints so as to find the matching Fibonacci ratio for the curve you are doing, this is important. Also, if you make formations with your hand, you can use your hand as a way to view the Fibonacci sequence as a ratio that can be used to plan your art with just your fingers. All tools seem to be possible with the hands. I am middle aged and only just realizing this now but I hope to use it in my art. I was going to buy some golden ratio callipers but now I realize that my own hands are even better as they have the unique offset of my genetics and lifestyle infused into the shape of the bones. By using this state of mind, I went from catching a ball 15% of time to catching a ball 90% of the time, without any additional practice, just changing the way I catch it. Instead of thinking about catching it, I just focus on swaying so as to be perpetually moving so that I am not still as stillness causes the ball to bounce off my hands as I reach for it. And thereby so long as I breathe and keep moving, I seem to not even think about the ball, forget it, and then the ball appears in my hands. It is a different approach but it works for me as I find it easier to function when I don't think, I just flow.

[@1More_Dreamer]

I can draw the greatest masterpiece I've ever made, but It feels that when I get the colors wrong, It looks like a baby drawing😅

[@LucidVisions]

Is it me or is the audio slightly out of sync? Awesome content though!

[@josray2557]

I think it almost defeats the purpose doing it reversed. Make a color pyramid THEN apply it to an image. Anyone can rip apart what they did or another artist did. It's about showing how it's actually put to practice. I can see this method failing a lot due to the actual composition and subject matter of the image. Like "Wolverine jumping out of a taxi off a bridge" the taxi and wolverine are both yellow how would you split the difference to make your subject pop from the taxi? I would just put more atmosphere on the taxi to mute it but Idk that the answer or that is gunna sell the image right.

[@TheDrawingCodex]

Applying it is the real challenge for sure. I'm going to make videos applying all of the colour concepts I have outlined on the channel. I talk about how to set up a color plan in the video called "This simple colour Theory always works" Wolverine in front of taxi would be about leaning into the lost and found edges (in an artistic abstract way). Or simply not doing something like that. Remember you are the artist. You can choose what you draw... Just like the pre production team on a movie with the story board people and the colour key artists... The VFX concept artists. The mountain of people who make it look good and understand how to create contrast by choosing the shot and the props and the lighting and the final grade... Or yeah you could add atmosphere or value separation. :)

[@jasompinard4576]

u

[@taylorlandlords]

This video was pretty useless it's more just working backwards through his pieces not a tutorial on how to utilize color. Like it really doesn't translate to the film examples he choose it was a huge stretch applying this color structure to it like the scene with Ripley and The Grand Budapest Hotel, the short of the video is contrast is good.